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In 1324 Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa, crossed the Sahara on pilgrimage to Mecca with a huge caravan and a vast supply of gold. He gave away so much in Cairo that, according to a writer there, the value of gold in Egypt stayed lower for years.

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Mali's wealth came from the gold fields of West Africa and the trade across the Sahara. Most of what we know about Musa's journey comes from Arabic writers, above all al-Umari, who wrote in Cairo about twelve years later. He reported that before Musa arrived a mithqal of gold was worth 25 silver dirhams, and that afterwards it fell below 22 and stayed there for at least twelve years. Some historians think this was within normal swings in Egyptian prices, and figures such as tonnes of gold carried by camels are later estimates, not counts. By the end of the trip Musa had run short and borrowed from Cairo merchants. He brought scholars home with him, among them the Andalusian poet Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, and helped make Timbuktu a centre of learning. The Catalan Atlas, a map made in 1375, shows him holding gold.

Türkçe oku
Mali İmparatorluğu'nun hükümdarı Mansa Musa, 1324'te büyük bir kervan ve yüklü miktarda altınla Sahra Çölü'nü geçip hacca gitti. Kahire'de o kadar çok altın dağıttı ki, dönemin bir tarihçisine göre Mısır'da altının değeri yıllarca düşük seyretti.

Mali'nin zenginliği Batı Afrika'nın altın yataklarından ve Sahra'yı aşan ticaretten geliyordu. Yolculuk hakkında bildiklerimizin çoğu Arap yazarlardan, özellikle yaklaşık on iki yıl sonra Kahire'de yazan el-Ömerî'den gelir. El-Ömerî'ye göre Musa gelmeden önce bir miskal altın 25 gümüş dirhem ediyordu; sonra 22 dirhemin altına indi ve en az on iki yıl o düzeyi aşmadı. Bazı tarihçiler bu düşüşü Mısır'daki olağan fiyat dalgalanmaları içinde görür; develerle taşınan tonlarca altın gibi rakamlar da sayıma değil, sonradan yapılmış tahminlere dayanır. Dönüş yolunda Musa'nın altını tükendi ve Kahireli tüccarlardan borç aldı. Yanında Endülüslü şair Ebu İshak es-Sahilî gibi âlimleri Mali'ye götürdü ve Timbuktu'nun bir ilim merkezine dönüşmesine katkıda bulundu. 1375'te çizilen Katalan Atlası onu elinde altınla gösterir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Mansa Musa
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